(Jpost).The international community has to stop "coddling" the Palestinians and tell them unequivocally that they need to return to the negotiating table, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told a visiting US congressional delegation on Tuesday.
Netanyahu told the delegation, led by Congressman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), that the refusal of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to enter negotiations is bad for the PA, pushes peace further away, and only strengthens Hamas.
According to his assessment, the Palestinians are not used to such pressure from the international community, but that the message had to be delivered unequivocally from the world, and not only from the US Government officials said that there is currently very broad support among major players in the world for the need to return to the negotiating table.
"Everyone wants the current impasse to break, and no one sees a continuation of the current situation desirable," one senior official said, adding that Israel's expectation was that various countries - including leading players in the Arab world - would begin saying that to the Palestinians.
Netanyahu told the delegation, led by Congressman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), that the refusal of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to enter negotiations is bad for the PA, pushes peace further away, and only strengthens Hamas.
According to his assessment, the Palestinians are not used to such pressure from the international community, but that the message had to be delivered unequivocally from the world, and not only from the US Government officials said that there is currently very broad support among major players in the world for the need to return to the negotiating table.
"Everyone wants the current impasse to break, and no one sees a continuation of the current situation desirable," one senior official said, adding that Israel's expectation was that various countries - including leading players in the Arab world - would begin saying that to the Palestinians.
